Hungarian Bank Account
- Thread starter PHARTLEY
- Start date
You will definitely have to come to Hungary to open the account in person. Citibank (www.citibank.hu) have a good English language on-line banking system and are easy to deal with.
I will second that. I have an a/c with Citibank (their branch in Vorosmarty Ter have English speaking staff & all info in English ) Their website is excellent & in English & also their telephone help line which is freefone from Ireland.
For identification purposes they accepted my Passport & my Credit Card. It might be wise to bring some form of bill with your address in case they've gone more strict.
I had to make an appointment to open the a/c so make sure you organise this a day in advance.
Charges for the a/c I opened are HUF50 per month (approx €2 ) but they pay interest on c/a balances so for me this was largely offset.
For identification purposes they accepted my Passport & my Credit Card. It might be wise to bring some form of bill with your address in case they've gone more strict.
I had to make an appointment to open the a/c so make sure you organise this a day in advance.
Charges for the a/c I opened are HUF50 per month (approx €2 ) but they pay interest on c/a balances so for me this was largely offset.
I would eliminate MKB from your list of options. Their internet banking package is very unreliable in my experience. The system relies on an intricate password based authorisation and floppy disc "key". When that goes wrong, very few people at the branch speak English, and those that do ask you to call the computer services company that supports the banks server!
H
Hungary
Guest
One more vote for Citibank because their English customer service and online banking would be rational reasons for choice. I also suggest you go to Vorosmarty ter branch (opening hours: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm) due to good location if Citibank was under your fingers.
Since I have been a satisfied Citibank client for 4 years my advice is not objective
Since I have been a satisfied Citibank client for 4 years my advice is not objective
Avoid Inter-Europa for the same reasons, absolutely a carbon copy of above. I wasted lots of time trying to do transfers over the net with their floppy disk "key" before I did the same as other posters and moved my local account to Citibank. No problems since then.
H
Hungary
Guest
Wow, Hungarian words at AAM are not usual.
I am much appreciated with that.
Köszönöm zsizsik!
I am much appreciated with that.
Köszönöm zsizsik!
H
Hungary
Guest
Semmi gond/No problem zsizsik
A szándék a fontos/intention is important
A szándék a fontos/intention is important
L
lee-m
Guest
in erste bank you are able to close the money in a daily deposit with reasonable and negotiable interest, the advantage is that you can release money from the deposit for your needs with a day notice, no penalty etc' due to the forint base rate the interest you will be getting in Hungary is higher then the interest you may get back home
Then you must be lucky, because in the 2 CIB branches I visited, the staff had a very hard time understanding and speaking English.
I opened a bank account with Erste Bank (because the staff was very pro) and K&H (because it's a daughter of our Belgian KBC, always easy in case of a problem)
What amazed me most was the number of papers I had to fill in (in both banks). I had to sign so many times I started to feel like a celebrity
Hello - interesting trip to Budapest. I successfully opened an Account with Citibank. Took about 30 minutes. Needed Passport and Drivers licence + Barclaycard seemed to help. Maybe I got lucky but there was an excellent English speaker to hand. Just waiting for docs to arrive here in the UK with my Internet login details. Of course there are ongoing costs, but nothing too excessive. Thanks once more to everyone.